Illinois' 5 Most Charming Villages To Visit With Serene Vibes

If you're looking for a unique thing to do in Illinois that doesn't involve going to Chicago, consider making a day trip to one of the state's quieter pockets. You might be surprised by what can be found in Illinois' villages: Riverside trails, roadside installations, and Amish bakeries are a few potential highlights. The state has an expansive variety of places to interest every traveler, from the forest preserves of the north to the limestone bluffs along the Mississippi River.

We chose five villages across Illinois that offer their own unique charm, whether that be community traditions, historic architecture, or cozy strips of shops and cafés. We used recommendations from past travelers along with expert blogs and review sites to provide insights based on real travel experiences, with our full methodology provided at the end of this article. These villages are all more rurally populated, having just a couple of hundred residents in some cases. That may mean less in the way of businesses and nightlife, but it also lends the villages a serene, unhurried ethos where you can get away from the busier city life and enjoy a change of rhythm.

Just a smattering more than 100 people call Bishop Hill home, yet the little village has snagged the attention of a few headlines. In 2024, for example, the village's Colony Church was named one of the most endangered historic sites in Illinois (it's since received a new preservation plan), and a survey of 3,000 adults by Joy Organics ranked Bishop Hill among the top 150 sought-after places in America to escape the grind. No doubt, a big source of Bishop Hill's charm is its preserved Swedish heritage. It was originally founded in 1846, according to the State Historic Preservation Office, as a Swedish utopian colony, which left behind some unique architectural landmarks, like the Colony Church.

Its preserved sites are what make Bishop Hill an ideal village to visit for history lovers. A TripAdvisor reviewer remarked on the unique sites and friendliness of the town: "We found the town wonderful, the places that [were] open had very nice folks that gave us a wonderful explanation of their building and the town at that time." According to 25 News, there are 19 historical structures intact from the original settlement. One of those is the Steeple Building, originally constructed in 1854 as a hotel. Today it's a museum, with a functioning clock tower that's manually cranked each week, open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Located next to the Steeple Building is one of the village's few dining spots — the Krans Kafe, which holds 4.9 stars on Google. It serves a selection of sandwiches inspired by the village's Swedish heritage, plus a slew of coffee and tea options. You can then stop in at the Bishop Hill Colony Store across the street for some local souvenirs before heading homeward.

Elsah is an old-world beauty, voted as the most scenic place in Illinois on the state's 200th birthday, NBC Chicago reported. The village of just over 500 people is a patchwork of stone cottages and steep limestone bluffs complementing one another. You'll notice upon entering town that there are almost no modern commercial sites or signage — the village has rules about preserving its historic character, and the whole community is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. As Great Rivers & Routes explains, Elsah's preservation is in part because of its isolation from major developments, lending it both authenticity and solitude. Today, it consists of 48 buildings maintained from the 19th century.

With its compact size, Elsah is easy to explore on foot. The Village of Elsah Museum is the top-rated thing to do in town on TripAdvisor, and it's a great starting point for those interested in the local history (though it's only open from April through October). The museum itself is housed in one of the historic buildings, the 1887-built Village Hall. If you walk down the village strip for about five minutes, you'll reach the Mississippi River, which is paralleled by the Sam Vadalabene Bike Trail. The trail takes a scenic passage along the river, flanked by the towering limestone bluffs.

Travelers flying in can reach Elsah in a 40-minute drive from the St. Louis Lambert International Airport. There are two bed-and-breakfasts in the village: the Green Tree Inn and Maple Leaf Cottage Inn. Both are well-reviewed options, with close to 5 stars from Google reviews, and both are located right in the village's heart, so you can check which rooms are available during the time of your stay.

Engulfed in the lush, shadowy canopy of the Shawnee National Forest is Southern Illinois' little village of Pomona. Though its population hovers under 800, the village bears several travel-worthy treasures in its wooded hollows, including a natural bridge, an award-winning winery, and an abandoned general store. The village is under a 40-minute drive from the Veterans Airport of Southern Illinois.

Pomona's biggest draw is, without a doubt, the Pomona Natural Bridge, described by travel blog Our Wild Wanderers as "one of those rare spots that's both impressive and incredibly easy to reach." Starting from the village center, you'll drive along a road aptly called the Natural Bridge Road for about seven minutes. Along the way, don't miss the ruins of the former Pomona General Store, with its vintage gas pump out front. The road leaves you at a parking area where you'll find the trailhead to a 0.3-mile loop trail taking you to the natural stone bridge. The gentle trail winds through beeches and hickories of the Shawnee National Forest and arrives at a creek, where the bridge hangs over, like something marking an enchanted threshold in a fairy tale.

Wine lovers may be more drawn to a different side of Pomona, which sits along the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail, a dreamy fall escape. The Pomona Winery is the village's wine-lover haven, with a specialty in fruit wines. Its strawberry dessert wine won an Illinois Governor's Cup Award, and one Google Local Guide asserted of another product: "Best Apple Wine I ever had." The winery's tasting room is open from Thursday through Sunday.

Where Bishop Hill leans into its Swedish heritage and Pomona has strong ties to wine culture, Arthur's tone is set by its Amish community. Arthur's a village in the heart of Illinois Amish country, with a population of around 2,300, many of whom are involved in local Amish trades. The Amish way of life harkens to preindustrial times: You may see horse-drawn buggies and wagons with manual farm tools around town.

If you want to stop by some Amish businesses for quilts or baked items, you have to head to the pastures surrounding the village center, in "the outskirts of town," as blogger Just Bee shared, "since most of the Amish businesses are found at their nearby farms." One stop the blogger recommended is Green Meadow Farm, which offers rides in traditional Amish buggies plus a selection of cheeses and yogurts made on the farm. The downtown patch of Arthur has plenty of places worth checking out, too. Pauly's BBQ is a popular spot with 4.7 stars from over 700 Google reviews, and in 2019, it won a poll for the best place in Illinois to eat a pulled pork sandwich, per National Hog Farmer.

The closest commercial airport to reach Arthur is Willard Airport, a 40-minute drive from the village. Lodging options in the village are limited to a couple of cottage rentals and inns. Arthur's Country Inn is a straightforward option with overall positive reviews, holding 4.5 stars on Google. It's within walking distance of a couple of local shops for coffee or toiletries, including a café, Roselen's Coffees & Delights, and a convenience store.

Roadside attraction fanatics will be fully in their element in Casey. It's one of Illinois' best-kept secrets and is full of kitschy roadside attractions that make up a menagerie of "world's biggest" contenders. These sensational sights are what lend Casey its slogan: "Big Things, Small Town." They include the world's largest wind chime, rocking chair, teeter totter, and gavel, among others. They've also made the village a staple of road trip travelers — it was ranked as one of the most amazing small towns in Illinois by travel reporter Bill on the Road.

The big roadside installations may be what initially draws visitors to Casey, but upon arrival, there are some great reasons to stick around. Despite its larger-than-life presence, Casey is surprisingly peaceful at its core, home to a humble population of around 2,400. "It's calm, quiet, and the people are super nice," wrote travel journalist Cortney Fries for Metro Parent. Beyond the big attractions, there's a pretzel store called Tetzel Prime right off Main Street, and a highly-rated café — Casey Coffee Company, with 4.8 stars on Google — just around the corner. If you want to get out into nature, the town's Fairview Park offers walking paths, fishing ponds, and a campground.

It's about an hour and 15 minutes by car from Willard Airport, the nearest commercial airport to Casey. Overnight visitors have a unique lodging option in town, which is the Eighteen-Ninety Sleepover, a hotel themed around the early 1900s. It has an impressive 4.8-star score on TripAdvisor, and there's even a special Harry Potter-themed room.

The five destinations chosen for our list of Illinois' most charming villages were selected for their combination of unique charm and positive visitor experiences. We only counted places that are villages in the sense of having a rural leaning and lower population, rather than using the state of Illinois' village classification, which includes such municipalities as Arlington Heights, a Chicago suburb of over 70,000 people. We used the U.S. Census Bureau's definition of "rural" to mean places with under 5,000 residents as a baseline metric of serene villages. Then, we read through visitor reviews from Google, TripAdvisor, and travel blogs to find those that consistently received praise for their charm and calm, with frequent mentions of things like preserved historic buildings, quiet streets, and scenic surroundings.